1:72 Supermarine Spitfire IX

The Spitfire of a Polish wing leader

The nine came about as a quick answer to the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, which from 1941 turned the until then even contest over the Channel in its own favor. A Merlin engine with a two-stage two-speed supercharger was built into the airframe of the fifth version and the Spitfire regained its advantage at altitude at a stroke. The low-altitude variant with an altered supercharger then became the most widespread form of the whole type, and you will recognize it by its often clipped wingtips.

Three machines, two theaters of war

Two of the three subjects belong to one man, a Polish fighter ace who commanded a wing in the Royal Air Force. Instead of the usual squadron letters his aircraft carried a personal code; one is captured over England in the summer of 1943, the other a year later. The third subject comes from a British squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force, which in the summer of 1944 operated from Italy and used a desert-toned finish. The sheet therefore covers two different camouflages as well as two different theaters.

Masks on top and advice on laying them

Masks for the glazing and for the wing national insignia, prepared by the specialized workshop Montex, are packed with the decals. The roundels on the wing can therefore be sprayed and the markings stay on the fuselage alone, which on large areas looks more believable than a film. If you decide to stick them on the wing all the same, thinned softener is a necessity. The disc runs across the ripple of the covering and without softening it will bulge into small folds at the edge.